The Central Authority

When Humanity stepped to the stars, it did so as one. It has painstakingly forged and delicately constructed a government that spoke for all acceptably and guided each with an equal hand. Perhaps it was reinforced by the finding of the Jupiter Gravesites, and the fear it inspired. Further inspired by the second Gravesites to be found and the third.
The Authority found and cataloged each, setting up study and quarantine, and making people feel safe enough to keep flying away from their home out into what could be a hostile universe. And yet, with each site that was found, people grew inured to the shock. With each colony founded that remained hale and hearty, the imagined threat of some alien empire coming in to cut down our species seemed all the more ephemeral.
As the fear waned, people started asking questions about what the Central Authorities' role was in the grand scheme of things, and if worlds really needed their strong right hand looming over them. Few remembered how the Authority was the one that had built most of their houses and infrastructure, spaceports and starfortresses. The things they all used to defend themselves, and now looked to in hunger and desperation.
When the Dock Riots broke out, war followed soon after, and the colonies were soon dissuaded of the notion that they were on par with the Authority. The Asteriomachi, as it came to be known, was the summation of the alien technology that the Central Authority had spent decades studying. Beam weapons that cut holes in reality. Invincible spheres that took on whole fleets of ships, not to mention self-replicating soldiers and firearms.
The rebellions would have been crushed by the Authority if they had not been given directions to stand down. The technological gap was too great.
Mercy is the only thing that saved the nacent Star Nations. An order of mercy given from Earth for reasons unknown pulled the fleets of the Central Authority away from the war, back to Sol, leaving only the destruction they had wrought and the ships that refused to go and became the Remnant Fleet. The Authority has not left Sol since, long since having become the Shield Wall, only sending the Emissaries on occasion for their mysterious tasks.
I have no doubt that the Authority could reestablish their control of the galay if they so chose, but they apparently have no desire to do so. Another possibility is that the Central Authority is waiting for something, but I can't imagine what that thing might be.

Type

Government, Leadership

Controlled Territories

• The Shield Wall